Xbox One S All Digital Edition design, price reportedly revealed by leak

By Aaron Mamiit Published April 14, 2019

The Xbox One S All Digital Edition, the rumored disc-free version of the Xbox One S, has not yet been officially unveiled by Microsoft, but a new leak has revealed more details about the upcoming console.

The design of the Xbox One S All Digital Edition will reportedly be very similar to the current Xbox One S, according to images obtained by German blog WinFuture.

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xbox one s — Image used with permission by copyright holder

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xbox one s all digital edition design price leaked 3 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

As expected, the disc-less version of the Xbox One S will keep the design the console, but without the Blu-ray drive. The leaked box also reveals that the console will come with a 1TB hard drive, with pre-installed copies of Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, and Forza Horizon 3.

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The Xbox One S All Digital Edition will reportedly launch in Europe on May 7 after its unveiling on April 16 in an Inside Xbox event. This coincides with a report last month that Microsoft will start accepting pre-orders for the console this month, with a plan to start deliveries in May.

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The leaked information also revealed that the price of the Xbox One S All Digital Edition will be 230 euros, equivalent to about $260. This is a bit higher than the previously reported $200 price tag, and because there are Xbox One S bundles that are about $250, it is expected that the discless console’s price tag in the U.S. will be lower.

There are reports that Microsoft will also launch a program codenamed Odessa that will allow owners of Xbox One games on CDs to trade them in for tokens to download their digital versions. The WinFuture report did not mention the program, and it is unclear if it will be a part of the upcoming Inside Xbox event.

It is also unclear if Microsoft’s next-generation consoles will both come with discless versions, though one of them is being rumored to be designed that way.

Microsoft is expected to unveil the next-generation Xbox consoles at E3 2019. There will be two versions, with Anaconda rumored to be the more powerful console with a solid state drive, while Lockhart is said to come with a lower price and possibly discless, primarily to be used with the xCloud game streaming service.

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Xbox lost its digital-only battle, but still won the war

Xbox Series S

Over this past weekend, a lot of Xbox's online features went down, causing a bevy of system-wide problems on Xbox Series X and S consoles. Not only could players not buy and download games, but they couldn’t even access their digital libraries.
Considering that the Xbox Series S is a digital-only console and the importance of Xbox Game Pass on these platforms, not being able to play digital games was a major issue -- one that gamers feared a decade ago when Microsoft initially announced the Xbox One. The recent outage highlights how Microsoft was ultimately able to achieve the digital-focused gaming vision that it had with that console, even if the brand had to be raked through the coals for that to happen.
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On top of that, Xbox representatives would tell people to "#dealwithit" or buy an Xbox 360 if they disagreed with Microsoft's strategy for the Xbox One. Obviously, this confrontational approach did not go over well with hardcore gaming fans, especially in 2013 when casual online gaming wasn’t as ubiquitous, and we didn’t necessarily connect every device we owned to the internet. Vocal gamers on the internet just weren't interested in a platform that restricts what the player can do via an online connection, and any goodwill Microsoft gained during the Xbox 360 generation was ultimately tarnished.
Microsoft eventually released an all-digital version of the Xbox One, coming full circle and hinting at what was to come. Image used with permission by copyright holder
While Microsoft ultimately backtracked on these features, their announcement's damage to the system was irreversible. Microsoft had to spend almost the entirety of the Xbox One generation apologizing and showing that they cared about games by implementing backward compatibility, Play Anywhere, and Xbox Game Pass initiatives. That's why it's surprising when an event like this Xbox outage makes you step back and notice that Microsoft still did achieve its initial vision for the Xbox platform in many ways over the past nine years.
The rise of the Xbox Series consoles
The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S have both been received quite well. They’re powerful and easy-to-use pieces of gaming hardware and have some great features like smart delivery and quick resume. At the same time, they've embraced digital, online-focused gaming more than ever before. Look no further than the lack of a disc drive on the Xbox Series S, Microsoft's push into cloud gaming, and rumors of a puck-shaped Xbox streaming box to see that Microsoft never truly abandoned its plans for an intrinsically online gaming platform.
Microsoft's servers are so intrinsic to the Xbox Series systems that server issues can lock players out of single-player digital games they bought with their own money. That implies there is hidden DRM for any digital game purchased or redeemed through Game Pass on Xbox, even if the game itself is a single-player adventure. Access is one of the biggest red flags in the age of digital ownership, and the temporary Xbox outage highlights why many people see it as a problem.
Despite criticism in 2013, Microsoft still released a system with some of the Xbox One's most controversial features and is reportedly working on a streaming-only device that's not too far off from how the Xbox One was initially positioned, sans cloud gaming. While Microsoft hasn't done anything as egregious as disabling used physical games, it has slowly demonstrated that some of the Xbox One’s initial goals were just ahead of their time, not impossible to implement.
The medium is the message
At least part of the vision that Microsoft was derided for with the Xbox One has come to fruition with the Xbox Series X, showing that where Microsoft really messed up with the Xbox One was with timing and messaging. The Xbox team's messaging nowadays is very good about being a consumer-friendly company for gamers. With initiatives like Play Anywhere, Xbox Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud Gaming, it wants its fans to know that they can play various Xbox games anywhere and any way they like.

Because of that, it can get away with online features being tied to something as simple as accessing digital games until an event like an outrage exposes its shortcomings. We don't necessarily like the idea of an always-online, all-digital console much more than we did in 2013; Microsoft has just found acceptable ways to position and market systems that lean into those elements.
Still, that approach has all been built around Microsoft's online infrastructure. While it works a lot of the time, periods like this past weekend when it goes down highlight just how digitally reliant modern gamers are. And how one day, once the servers powering these initiatives go away, the experience of using a great system like the Xbox Series X will barely function.

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